Holocaust victim

On an individual level, mercenaries are indeed very competent. There are several reasons for this:

Most, if not all, mercenaries have gained combat experience in an army before deciding to become soldiers of free enterprise.

Almost all mercenaries (not to be confused with private military contractors) have a background in special operations forces or have served in other elite combat units. They know their business.

Of course, money is the main motivation for most of them to fight for a foreign nation, and that's probably a very bad reason to risk their lives, but is it also a bad motivating factor?

I've seen many regular soldiers who volunteered to help their country "fight for the greater good" and then deserted the battlefield. Once the bullets get a little too close, your sense of patriotism isn't as strong.

"Mad Mike" Hoare, an Irish mercenary commander, somewhere in the Congo.

In addition to that, many mercenaries aren't really fighting for the money; the pay isn't very high anyway. Like many special forces soldiers, their motivation lies elsewhere:

They are fighters and they fight for the good of fighters. There is a certain pride in being a mercenary. You feel a kinship with the old Vikings, the Landsknechte of the Thirty Years' War and, of course, with all those madmen who ventured into Africa in the 50s, 60s and early 70s to fight in Biafra and the Congo.

Finally, what also distinguishes them from ordinary soldiers is that they are mad. No normal human being would fight on a foreign continent, for a foreign country, and for just a few dollars. Madness, however, as any experienced soldier can tell you, is a virtue in combat.

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The Last Judicial Hanging in The United States

Billy Bailey was born in 1946, the ninth of 23 children, in South Carolina, where they lived in poverty. When he grew up, he developed an alcohol addiction and had a filthy temper. Bailey also got in trouble with the law on numerous occasions, committing six felonies ranging from grand larceny to burglary. In 1979, in Delaware, after being placed in a work release facility, Billy Bailey learned he faced a potential 45-year sentence for his most recent string of crimes. After attempting to kill himself with a knife only to be stopped by his brother-in-law, Bailey asked him to stop at a liquor store. There, he robbed the clerk before knocking her down and attempting to shoot her, but thankfully, the gun jammed. He fled the scene, being dropped off by his brother-in-law at Lambertson’s Corner. There, Billy Bailey entered a farmhouse and stole a shotgun. The elderly couple inside where then slaughtered by Bailey, the man being shot twice in the chest and once in the head with the pist...

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